


Somewhere Between Here and There

by yujowheelies



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), the adventure zone
Genre: Campaign: Amnesty (The Adventure Zone), Canon Compliant, Duck Newton thinks about his feelings, Duck/Aubrey sibling dynamic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Might just be Hurt I’m sorry, No Proofreading We Die Like Men, Protective Duck Newton, ambulance rides, episode 14 hurt me, post ep 14
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:29:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27154534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yujowheelies/pseuds/yujowheelies
Summary: On the way to St. Francis hospital after a certain Pizza Hut sign disaster, a half-lucid Duck Newton takes some time to think, and maybe reach out.
Comments: 5
Kudos: 19





	Somewhere Between Here and There

**Author's Note:**

> That post episode 14 ambulance ride that I know only I care about! I just have a lot of feelings about one (1) very unhinged park ranger. 
> 
> Also this is my first fic on here so uh.. hello lgbtq community. I’m still getting the hang of uploading stuff but I hope you guys enjoy.

The last time Duck Newton was in an ambulance must’ve been at least twenty years ago. 

There’s a lot from twenty years ago that Duck can’t quite nail details on, though. Blame it on the natural progression of time or his... regrettable consumption of certain substances in his youth, but Duck’s trips down memory lane are awfully pot-holed (no pun intended). What he does remember, though, was another night of hockey in the abandoned department store and a fellow hooligan taking a pretty nasty fall. A stomach-turning crack echoed through the dark hall, and the group was immediately swept up by childlike guilt. It was Duck who eventually ran to a pay phone to call the ambulance, and the rest of the group, save for Juno, had scrambled before the adults arrived. So, at some ungodly hour and probably on a school night, Duck and Juno accompanied their fallen teammate to St Francis in an ambulance. Duck remembers getting nice and chewed out for that one, right in the middle of the hospital lobby, and winces before suddenly feeling himself shift from a half-dream, distant memory and into the present. 

Right. 

The ambulance. 

Like in his memory, it was dark. If Duck closed his eyes again, he could probably fool himself into another memory- falling asleep in a dimly lit car like he had so many times as a young child. Duck found his mind suddenly adrift. What was he doing here, again? He answered his own question before it finished formulating. Falling sign, falling roof. He could remember the familiar feeling of scrambling from place to place. To emergency personnel, to Ned, to Aubrey... 

Duck’s stomach dropped and he was back to scrambling, immediately taking inventory and feeling suddenly guilty that he had drifted off. Hopefully it wasn’t too long of a nap. 

Ned Chicane. Currently stable but unconscious, and the reason for the ambulance. Duck hears incomprehensible, but idle whispers of EMTs and the consistent beep of a monitor somewhere and finds himself taking a breath.

Aubrey Little. Not too far, actually. Sitting to Duck’s right, still wrapped in the shock blanket Duck had hurriedly pulled from his equipment earlier. Even in the dimness, Duck could see her grip on the material, knuckles pale. Her breath was ragged and uneven, matching the tremor of her shoulders. She suddenly looked very small, and this startled Duck in a way he couldn’t quite place. At some point in his observation he must’ve turned slightly towards Aubrey, and he now found his hands hovering. The way they did when he approached a wounded animal, one that could move suddenly or in an unpredictable manner. 

Duck took a breath. Words first. 

“Aubrey?” 

It was somewhere between a whisper and a gruff choke as he stumbled over her name. A few seconds pass with a silence that seems to deafen the background noise. Duck clears his throat weakly and tries again, unsure if lack of a startled reaction was good or bad. 

“Aubrey...” he pauses, taking a breath before continuing this time. “It’s me, Duck.” 

Upon announcing his name, something small seems to shift. It’s difficult to read movement beneath a blanket and an extra layer of darkness, but Duck gets the undeniable feeling in his gut that Aubrey is there now, listening. Still, but listening. He considers what to do next. As he mentally sifts through any useful forest training knowledge, Duck is taken aback but a sudden thought. 

_She needs to know I’m alive._

In the moment he can’t quite remember why he would think such a thing, but like he knows that Aubrey is listening, he knows this is the right answer. His hands, still hovering, reach tentatively. 

“Aubrey I- I’m right next to you.” 

With a very calculated gentleness, Duck’s hand touches Aubrey’s shoulder. He feels a shudder, and nearly pulls his hand away before feeling the body beneath his hand relax ever so slightly. Her tremors lighten, and Duck swears he hears Aubrey audibly exhale for the first time in minutes. He exhales too, on a breath he didn’t know he was holding, trying to ignore the creeping sense of helplessness that had begun to eat at the back of his mind. For a split second, any words or skill he had in comfort seemed to escape him as he froze, hand still on Aubrey’s shaking shoulder. Another breath in. Another breath out. 

Duck carefully moves to bring his arm around Aubrey, hand moving from one shoulder to the other. Rather than try to move her, Duck feebly scoots himself over on the rather uncomfortable seat the two are sharing until he hears the soft crinkle of the shock blanket. The two were rather close to begin with, so there wasn’t much space to fill, but Duck is awkward and tense and, like the teenager that called for the ambulance so long ago, he is afraid. With a breathy chuckle, he considers that maybe he needed to make sure he was alive, too. 

Before he can think about that too hard, though, Duck hears the crinkling of blanket again, followed by the feeling of a weight against his side. Less of a weight that could knock him off-balance and more of a weight that feels grounding. This weight, he realizes dumbly, is Aubrey, who has now wordlessly leaned herself against him. His gaze fixed on his lap, Duck sees the faint outline of one of Aubrey’s hands reach for him before weakly gripping the top of his pant leg. Without thinking, Duck places his free hand protectively over Aubreys. 

There will be time to talk later. 

For now, Duck Newton closes his eyes and lets his mind loose focus, letting the reassurance of the darkness, weight and the sound of breath overtake him for the rest of the ride.


End file.
